Snowy Noise in the background Vocal (talking only) audio

[kozikowski]

This is the adapter you need to plug your microphone into the Mic-In of a sound card (pink on my two SoundBlaster sound cards)

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/UnbalBalAdapter.jpg

If you do round one of these up, you are cautioned to plug the computer in first, then the microphone.

I have never seen one of these for sale anywhere. Everybody who has one has either built it themselves, or the technical services people where they work built it. The cable was used to plug their broadcast quality microphone (Electro-Voice 635A) into their news-gathering tape machine. The interconnection problem is almost exactly the same.

I'm digging for the best way to do this with available parts.

After you generate this cable, you could still be left with frying noise on your performances. Some of the newer sound cards leave out some of the handy tools that the earlier ones had -- like the internal 20dB volume boost. That one tool is expensive to build and is frequently the difference between getting a good microphone to work and not.


I am after the voice performance before you did anything to it. The goal is not a theatrical presentation, it's detective work. I need to see the blood on the walls and ceiling before you cleaned it (so to speak).

More as we go.

Koz

[kozikowski]

This is a dynamic microphone very similar to yours (but much older) plugged into a very good quality Creative SoundBlaster Live! sound card microphone connection (pink) in a Windows PC. I'm using the adapter cable from the above posting.

The record volume is all the way up and the +20dB Microphone Boost has been selected.

This is about as good as you will ever get the microphone sound service from a PC.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/MicTest.wav

Koz

[kozikowski]

We've been running on the assumption the problem is the white noise Hissss that all microphone amplifiers have. That's not what you have. You have the sound card picking up whistling junk from somewhere, my guess is digital noise from inside the computer.

They warn you when you put a sound card in your computer to put it as far away from everything else as you can get it, particularly the video card.

I bet you're listening to the video card changing colors or the hard drive cleaning itself up. I've had both of those get into a sound track.

I don't remember if we established if you're on a Laptop or not, but if you are, you're dead. The Mic-In will never get any better than that. It's an external sound card for you.

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

Koz

[MuLLady244]

Yes your recording sounds perfect. There is something subtle in the background but its smooth with no annoying qualities like my recording has. Mine has that chalkboard skretching quality.

By the way YES I do have a laptop a DELL Inspiron E1705, is there hope with an Audio interface? Potentially that would solve any internal computer noises that might be showing up on the audio correct?

I am assuming that you are recommending that I get an audio interface as opposed to an external sound card.

If yes is it the Behringer UCA202 USB or the Edirol UA-1EX USB?

Or should I use "Urecord" that I saw on the link you sent:

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

In addition since I am using a laptop I am assuming to avoid this as the solution http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/UnbalBalAdapter.jpg

Instead go with an Audio Interface correct?

With this statement from you, are you looking for something from me like the raw data? "I am after the voice performance before you did anything to it. The goal is not a theatrical presentation, it's detective work. I need to see the blood on the walls and ceiling before you cleaned it (so to speak)."

Summary Actions:

Purchase either Behringer UCA202 USB or the Edirol UA-1EX USB?
Purchase microphone cord to connect to audio interface. ANY recommendations here?

From where I am sitting unless I am missing something these two actions "MIGHT" fix the issue.

If yes I look forward to your guidance on which audio interface and a recommendation on the cord.

Please advise,

MuLLady

[kozikowski]

From an earlier post by you that you don't have a microphone amplifier. Oh, yes you do. The output signal of a microphone isn't enough to run the electronics that make the digital bitstream. The signal must be made very much higher and the only way to do that is with an amplifier. Your current one is buried inside your laptop.

This microphone amplifier is a very common place to get into trouble. It's job is to amplify a Reeeeeely tiny microphone signal and not change it or add noise. In both of our performances, you can hear that very low sharp hiss in the background. That's the amplifier noise. Books have been written about how to design amplifiers to make that noise as low as possible.

In my case, almost all the rest of the noise is the fan in my computer and the traffic noise from the street in Los Angeles. I didn't take any great care to eliminate either one. In your case, the sensitive microphone amplifier is amplifying Something In The Computer.

So your task is to put all the analog processing and amplification outside the computer. Whatever you pick should deliver a finished bitstream to the computer probably via USB. There is one other place you can get into trouble. The manufacturers are strongly tempted to use the battery available in the USB connector to run the audio services. It's cheap to do that. Run the other way. Pick a device that plugs into the wall or runs from its own batteries. That computer battery voltage (5 volts) is frequently "dirty" and unstable and you could be right back where you started in being able to hear the hard drive spin up behind your performance. There was an early USB audio device that was famous for this. I bought one. It's in the garage.

I've never used any of these USB devices listed on the Hardware Review. I have mostly Macs and they take very high quality high-level stereo signals. The Left-Right-Mono test is me talking into a 50 year old ribbon microphone amplified by a Shure FP24 field mixer and applied to my Mac. We're all sitting on my bed to get the soundproofing. There is no noise removal on that clip.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

Koz

[MuLLady244]

Yes I wish I had a MAC but I have a PC

It is sounding like I am dead with the current situation.

What is the least inexpensive stand alone recording device that I can buy to build the raw data that I can then edit in Audacity?

MuLLady

[kozikowski]

One of the problems with the bottom-feeding equipment is the lack of specs. I bought a number of Really Cheap sound mixers that failed to meet the production needs before I gave up and spent the bux on a mixer whose numbers promised the performance that actually met the job. The earlier mixers had no numbers. "Microphone Input" just means you can plug a microphone in. It doesn't mean you will get a performance out.

Have you been through the hardware reviews?

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

They're not as comprehensive as they could be, but it's just beginning. When you figure out what to do, you can add your own review.

At the risk of thinking too far out of the box, this thing has achieved pretty much clean sweep status among audio people. I'm the holdout. I don't have one yet. When two audio types meet, they exchange the Secret Handshake and then compare which Zoom they have and how many.

https://www.audiolinks.com/tek9/tek9.as ... =jomseqknq

Koz

[MuLLady244]

Thanx I will let you know how it goes